Catpeople?

[pyratejohn]

My fingers were crossed that Triplanetary would arrive by Father's Day, but that looks unlikely at this point, so instead of playing that I plan on running my wife and kids through Tollenkar's Lair.

And my wife wants to play a catperson.

I suppose someone out there has done some stats, but if not, I think I'll just base them off of the ITL jaguar.

Thoughts?

[Jim Kane]

Sure; check out the Caitians from the Star Trek franchise. They are a felinoid race. I would bet your best bet for existing source material to create a TFT analogue from, would be from the old STAR TREK: The Role Playing Game, by FASA c1982-ish. You could also check-out the Star Trek wiki for a detailed description on that race, and make up your own; natch.

Good luck.

JK

[Groknard]

You might find some good guidance by taking a look at these two threads here, as "cat folk" have some history in GURPS:

Converting GURPS characters to TFT

Default No Campaign Without Cat Girls - Scroll down the first page for a good example that, when combined with some of the approaches outlined above, might give you a great set of starting character stats and inspiration for talents and other characteristics. For example:

GURPS ST 10 + HT 13 / 2 = TFT ST 12 (rounded up)
GURPS DX 11 = TFT DX 11
GURPS IQ 9 = TFT IQ 9

32 points! And maybe, like an Elf, MA without armor is 12

[David Bofinger]

Depends to some extent if she's imagining a leopard, lion, tiger, or whatever.
But there are some obvious advantages she might expect to get:

• Bonuses to unarmed combat, at least +1.
• Better than human night vision: see further by torch, take off a die for visual tasks in low light, etc. Inferior colour vision might catch her out. Or no colour vision at all, because when TFT was published I think that's what scientists believed. :-)
• Lands on her feet after a fall so reduced falling damage unless restrained/unconscious and less likely to be prone after a fall.
• Bonuses to acrobatics, stealth and sex appeal. Possibly to climbing. Probably not charisma, depending on prevailing social attitudes.
• Penalties when dirty and/or wet. Make her hesitate before going into water and want to clean herself immediately after getting dirty. If she can't, icky, distracted.

They'd have a higher starting dexterity than a human. How much all that should cost to make them balanced is a difficult question. I might go with ST 6, DX 9, IQ 8, 8 additional points, all the bonuses above. Or I might be generous and let her start with DX 10.

[JLV]

Originally Posted by pyratejohn

My fingers were crossed that Triplanetary would arrive by Father's Day, but that looks unlikely at this point, so instead of playing that I plan on running my wife and kids through Tollenkar's Lair.

And my wife wants to play a catperson.

I suppose someone out there has done some stats, but if not, I think I'll just base them off of the ITL jaguar.

Thoughts?

If you have a copy of Dark City Games' Fire in the Streets, it provides a "campaign guide" for their games, and, among other things including a discussion of the various races that appear in their "game world." One of those is the "Tigrans." I don't think I'm allowed to post the stats for the Tigrans here (at least, not without express permission from DCG), but I can tell you that just about ANY game you buy from them will be a big add to your TFT-suitable collection, and Fire in the Streets is a really fun read!

[Chris Rice]

As David said, it really depends what sort of "Catperson" she's envisioning. If it's a large strong creature like a Lion, Tiger or Leopard, I'd just use the Stats for the Lizardmen in ITL; larger than a man, stronger, better HTH damage. If however she's envisioning something more like "Catwoman" something lithe and skillfull, I'd go with; Higher DEX, lower STR, Acrobatics, Thrown Weapons, Climbing, Alertness and Silent Movement Talents. Weapons would be light like daggers, maybe whip.

[Steve Jackson]

And keeping in mind that this is TFT and not GURPS, more thought should be given to the cultural background and relationship with other races, for roleplaying purposes, than +1 to this or -1 to that.

In other words, build a 32-point character that fits your conception of a cat person, and then play them appropriately.

I realize that fewer splatbooks are sold that way, but such is life!

[pyratejohn]

Good answer. I was thinking along those lines myself, so when we made characters last night I basically said to her, "You have 38 points to spend on stats [I gave everyone bonus points to start]. Cat People's claws do an extra point of damage, and Silent Movement costs you one less."

She is really good at filling in the backstory from there, so no worries from here on out.

My youngest son (aged 14, whose first game was GURPS at about age 8) came up with a fighter in record time. The system really seemed to click with him.

My eldest son and I played a couple months back, so he is familiar with the game. He wanted to make a character based on a mini he bought yesterday. Since the mini is clear plastic, he wants to be able to turn 'misty', so we created a new spell that's halfway between Blur and Invisibility.

In any event, thanks to everyone for the comments. The plan is to play Security Station today, and then follow that up Tollenkar's Lair. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Steve Jackson]

If you are going to give a small racial bonus, those are both sensible and not-unbalancing ones that will lead people toward skulking and catfights, both of which seem in character. Good.

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

If you are going to give a small racial bonus, those are both sensible and not-unbalancing ones that will lead people toward skulking and catfights, both of which seem in character. Good.

In connection with this, you could balance small bonuses with small liabilities.

Better hearing than humans (-1 die to listening tasks), but loud noises can cause 'fatigue' damage.

Slightly better jumping and climbing is balanced by slightly (-10%) carryweight and no bonus at all if STx2 or higher encumbrance.

That kind of thing. I've seen plenty of animal races where the GMs favorite animal type had all bonuses to everything and no limitations at all, don't do that.